The present invention relates to a picture information filing system which has functions of indexing and soft copying of picture information and so on and which is capable of compiling operations such as extraction, insertion and deletion.
A picture information filing system has been recently developed which photoelectrically converts picture information such as various types of documents by two-dimensional scanning, stores the photoelectrically converted picture information in a picture information memory of large capacity, and records or displays the stored picture information as a two-dimensional visible picture by indexing, compiling or reproducing as needed.
The following two methods are feasible for preparing one manuscript incorporating a predetermined part a of an original A and a predetermined part b of an original B. The first method utilizes a xeroxing machine. Xeroxed copies A1 and B1 of the originals A and B are prepared using the xeroxing machine. The required part a of the xeroxed copy A1 and the required part b of the xeroxed copy B1 are cut away and adhered to a blank paper sheet. Another xeroxed copy of this blank paper sheet with the parts a and b is prepared to provide the desired manuscript. The second method utilizes a word processor when the originals A and B involve only characters. The originals A and B are stored in a floppy disk as a file A and a file B. The predetermined part a of the file A and the predetermined part b of the file B are read into a random access memory inside the word processor. A new file is prepared by compiling these parts. The new file is printed out with a printer or the like to provide a manuscript incorporating the required parts of the two different originals A and B.
However, with the first method, the originals must be xeroxed and the required parts must be cut so that unnecessary parts or trash increases. Furthermore, these xeroxing and cutting operations are cumbersome to the operator. The second method, on the other hand, has been limited to compiling operations of originals which contain only characters, and compiling operations including complex patterns have been impossible with this method.
An optical character reader is disclosed as a prior art technique in the Japanese patent publication No. 49-45176. According to this system, a character is divided into a plurality of sections and the information of respective sections is stored in a plurality of memory banks, thereby significantly shortening the memory access time for pattern preprocessing or pattern recognition, and thus improving the processing speed of the pattern recognition type processor.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 49-36242 discloses a picture information indexing system in which stationary picture information is projected on a screen by an indexing device incorporating an optical recording member, and variable information outputted to an electronic display device from an electronic computer is superposed on the image on the screen using a projecting optical system.